Buoyant insurance sector lifts European equities

Eurostoxx 50:2,786.16 (+64.92) Frankfurt DAX:6,656.88 (+143.04) Paris CAC:3,786.21 (+89.65)

EUROPEAN STOCKS climbed yesterday after a six-day slide made them the cheapest in more than two years and investors speculated that the Group of Seven nations will move to calm markets after Japan’s earthquake-induced nuclear crisis.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index climbed 1.9 per cent to 267.08 at the close in London, the biggest gain since December 1st. The gauge had tumbled 7 per cent over the previous six days after the Japanese earthquake and ensuing tsunami shut down cooling systems at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power station.

The drop pushed the measure’s valuation to 12.8 times its companies’ reported earnings, the cheapest since 2008.

“The market has priced in the uncertainty and as long as there is no new bad news it will remain stable,” said Thomas Stucki, who helps manage about $3.8 billion as chief investment officer at Hyposwiss Private Bank in Zurich.

“There are opportunities around, definitely,” he said.

European Insurers had the biggest gain of 19 industry groups in the Stoxx 600.

Allianz, Europe’s largest insurer, climbed 4.2 per cent to €95.05 and Axa rose 4.6 per cent to €13.95.

Munich Re, the world’s biggest reinsurer, added 4.1 per cent to €109.50. Hannover Re rallied 3.6 per cent to €38.40 as Morgan Stanley included it in a list of favoured insurance companies.

Heritage Oil soared 8.2 per cent to 313.5p.

John Wood Group, a UK oil and gas services provider, rallied 5 per cent to 619p.

SGL Carbon surged 8.7 per cent to €35, the biggest gain in almost two years, after predicting that operating profit will jump as much as 29 per cent in 2011.

Taylor Wimpey led gains among UK homebuilders as SIG, Europe’s biggest supplier of insulation, said trading for the first two months of the year was well ahead of the comparable period last year. The UK’s second-largest homebuilder by volume climbed 5 per cent to 39.67p. Persimmon, the third-biggest, rallied 5.4 per cent to 447.2p. SIG shares surged 7.8 per cent to 130.5p.

Siemens climbed 4.4 per cent to €90.21 as UniCredit upgraded Europe’s largest engineering company to “buy” from “hold”. – (Bloomberg)